Jesse Scheckner
Dania Beach Republican Rep. Hillary Cassel stacked a lot of campaign cash before Session, amassing more than $164,000 to defend her House District 101 seat.
Her Democratic challenger, Todd Delmay, was no slouch either. He raised nearly $81,000 through a flood of small donations between Jan. 1 and March 31.
At the close of the first quarter reporting period, Cassel had $183,500 remaining in her campaign account, eponymous political committee and a new one called Balanced Leadership, which took in a sizable share of her gains.
Her biggest single contribution, $25,000, came from a Daytona Beach-based hemp extract company (read: legal weed) called Nectris Labs that sells products as Outpost.
She also took a $5,000 check from POB Ventures, a Florida business that runs a medical cannabis training institute and a chain of hemp-related businesses. Last year, POB Ventures helped fund Gov. Ron DeSantis’ push to defeat a ballot measure that would have legalized recreational pot in the state.
Cassel also added funds from medical companies. That includes $5,000 from for-profit health care company Centene Corp. and the Florida Health Care Executive PAC whose Chair, Andrew Weisman, is the CEO of Fort Lauderdale-based nursing home management company NuVision Management.
Several unions — including the Teamsters, Metro-Broward Firefighters, Broward County Professional Firefighters, Teach Florida PAC and Florida Professional Firefighters gave between $1,000 and $2,000 each.
Other contributions included $5,000 from a political committee associated with the Florida Association of Public Insurance Adjusters, $4,500 from political committees linked to the Florida Association of Insurance Agents and $5,000 from the political donations arm of the Florida Justice Association.
Clay County Rep. Sam Garrison, who is slated to take the House Speaker gavel for the 2026-27 term, gave $12,000 through various political committees he controls. Cassel also banked $2,000 from Bonita Springs Rep. Adam Botana and $1,000 apiece from Reps. Tiffany Esposito, Tracy Koster, Jason Shoaf and John Snyder.
She spent just over $7,000 in Q1, not counting a $25,000 transfer she made between her Friends of Hillary Cassel and Balanced Leadership political committees. The preponderance of that, $7,000, went to Miami Beach consulting firm Polaris Public Affairs for mail media services.
She also paid $600 to Bluestream Consulting in Fort Lauderdale for compliance services. The remainder covered web costs and donation-processing fees.
Delmay, the Executive Director of LGBTQ advocacy group SAVE, launched his campaign in February to unseat Cassel, whom he criticized for switching from Democrat to Republican after she won re-election in November.
So far, he’s run an exclusively grassroots campaign.
More than 1,500 people donated to him in his first seven weeks running, with an average contribution of about $50.
After less than $2,000 worth of spending on compliance consulting and donation-processing fees, he had roughly $79,000 left between his campaign account and political committee, Delmay for Florida, by the beginning of this month.
HD 101 covers parts of Dania Beach, Hallandale Beach and Hollywood. The district leans Democratic, with nearly 42,000 registered Democrats, close to 30,300 Republicans and about 41,000 third- and no-party voters.
So far, only Cassel and Delmay are in the race.
The 2026 Primary is on Aug. 18, followed by the General Election on Nov. 3.
Candidates faced a Thursday deadline to report all campaign finance activity through March 31.
